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Tackling the topic of product detail page layouts is daunting because there is no short answer.
Saying one element such as large product images increases conversion, though it's proven, does not tell the full story.
The product detail page needs to be dealt with as a whole. This article will do just that. It will focus on the 'must have' page elements, recommend where they should appear on the page, explain why, and provide tips on how to maximize the value of each.
To support recommendations, experienced online retailers will be used as examples, known experts will be quoted, and for those who are visual, a wireframe has been put together for reference.
NB: This post was originally published in 2013 and has been republished as part of an experiment.
The purpose of the product detail page is to:
- Reduce distractions/focus a consumer's attention.
- Appeal to various buying stages.
- Satisfy various buying motivations.
- Answer questions to build confidence.
- Make the desired action simple and obvious.
Bryan Eisenberg has this to say about consumer buying motivations and how to approach:
At the most fundamental level, all people are motivated by a single, critical question: "what's in it for me" (WIIFM)? Their dominant personality types strongly influence how they ask that question, perceive value, and consciously – or more typically, subconsciously – approach a decision-making task.
This statement leads to two fundamental philosophies for the product detail page:
- The product detail page follows a hierarchy of information structured in an intuitive pattern aligned to how your target consumer wishes to view content during their buying journey.
"F Pattern" eye tracking studies indicate typical patterns and help to form a foundation for this hierarchy.
- The content displayed must deliver the right messages (in the form of copy, images, video, confidence building tactics, and obvious action points) to satisfy the "what's in it for me" questions, and is why a product detail page requires considerable thought, work and ongoing effort.
To simplify the breakdown of key elements of the product detail page, it has been broken down into four sections (see wireframe below):
- Section 1: Top left area of the page within the active window.
- Section 2: Top right area of the page within the active window.
- Section 3: Left hand side of the page below Section 1.
- Section 4: Right hand side of the page below Section 2.
It's important to note some experienced online retailers have moved to a three-column layout (ASOS, Amazon). This is not the time to delve into the pros and cons of this layout, however, if interested, make a comment below.
Section one:
Bread crumbs
With all of the talk about removing distractions at product detail page level, navigation is gone from the left hand side of the page. Breadcrumbs add a necessary usability element to assist those who wish to go back a step or two.
Product title
Product title can either sit directly above the image or at the top of the page to the right of the image. Eye tracking studies are consistent, stating the eye starts at the top left and moves left to right suggesting the ideal placement for the product title is the top left hand side in order to provide the necessary validation.
Amazon places the product title to the right of the image:
John Lewis has the product title over top the image:
Product title tip one: If you carry multiple brands, state the brand name in the title of the product.
For example:
- "Bose Soundlink Bluetooth Mobile speaker" (found at Amazon).
- "Calphalon Simply Calphalon 10" Omelette Pan with Cover" (found at Zappos).
- "Polo Ralph Lauren Custom Fit Long Sleeve Polo Shirt, Polo Black" (found at John Lewis).
Product title tip two: do not be afraid to have long product titles. In a two-column page layout, long titles are easily accommodated. A longer title explains to consumers exactly what the product is, it assists with SEO and there is opportunity to leverage the brand.
Main product image
People no longer want to browse a website, they want to experience it. The old saying "a picture is worth a thousand words" takes on new meaning online.
Those with a merchandising strategy that includes an approach to displaying products in ways to excite consumers and allow them to see themselves using and benefiting from the product will have an advantage over their competitors.
Answering the "what's in it for me" through pictures is simple and fast and is why product images build conversion.
Tip one: How big should the main image be on the product detail page? If the images are to a high standard and effectively tell the story of the product, the larger the better.
Zappos has adopted this to a new standard with a large main product image still making room for other content.
Tip two: Complimentary images are exactly that, they compliment the product or merchandise the product to emphasise benefits or unique features.
Use this space to show different angles of the product, close up shots, or the product in use.
'Sharing' Section
The 'Sharing' section comprises both social icons and sharing functionality. Have this section close to the images and away from the buying area.
Sharing should always be considered the 'Plan B' call to action on the page and not distract from the main purpose of the page (selling).
This can be an effective tool if the functionality is built properly and the business discipline is in place.
Tip: Simply displaying a link titled "add to favourites/wishlist" is the easy part. To monitise this functionality, try one or all of the following:
- Emails are sent out to the consumer at defined intervals reminding them of their wishlist item(s).
- Offer discounts. It's not recommended to make this a regular occurrence due to it conditioning buying behaviour, but periodically offer an incentive to purchase the wishlisted item.
- Provide notification of a sale where this item will be temporarily reduced.
- Prompt the consumer to send the wishlist item(s) to a family member, spouse or friend to purchase for you. There could be triggers to send this message i.e. Birthday, Christmas, Valentine's, Mother's Day.
Social sharing
Though every business seems to do it, the presence of social sites on the product detail page is not important.
The reason for this comes down to understanding the difference between the buying intent before a purchase, and the affinity created from the product and/or brand after a purchase.
The expression of intent (exploring products and product content) and affinity (emotional attachment) occurs at different stages of the customer journey.
Forrester reports 20% of customers engage after the point of purchase to express their affinity for the brand or product.
Tip one: Use the affinity shift in the customer journey through the tactical placement of social sites post purchase (i.e. confirmation pages, and confirmation emails).
Tip two: Another tactical placement for social sites is at the end of video.
Section two:
Content situated at the top right section of the page within the active window.
In order of importance from top to bottom of Section two:
Product pricing
List the RRP, the Sale price (if applicable) and the savings.
Tip: Make the percentage saved obvious. Years of studies have proven the power of showing the percentage savings. Use this bricks-and-mortar tactic in the online environment.
Amazon does this effectively, by showing both the dollar value and the percentage savings.
Customer reviews
This is in the form of a star rating and a link to read the customer comments (link takes consumers to the bottom of the page).
Those who read reviews and/or testimonials base their buying decisions on this content. 61% of people read reviews and 63% are more likely to purchase after reading a review.
And this is why this page element is prominently placed. Don't make the excuse your product mix is seasonal and there is not enough time to aggregate enough reviews to make it worthwhile.
The right customer review technology will assist in automating and simplifying this function of the business.
Product benefit copy
Common "what's in it for me" questions relate to how the product will benefit a consumer (i.e. "how can this make my life better"), making this concise message important.
There is a shortage of good examples and this could be due to the level of content lifting in other forms such as better quality images and/or the use of video.
Product size copy
Below the benefit copy make a statement explaining the sizing of the model wearing the garment (assuming it is an apparel site using a model): height, chest size, waist size, and the size of the garment he/she is wearing.
The Iconic does a good job of this. Communicating sizes for non-apparel products builds average order value. For example, Florists who communicate the product image is a 'large bouquet' increases the incidence of the large size being selected (defaulting the product selection to 'large' also helps).
SKU/product code
With the immense popularity of showrooming and general comparison-shopping with mobile devices, the presence of a product code near the top of the page assists this information/buying process.
Delivery message
Make a brief statement about the delivery, then link off to more content. Ideally, the brief message should consist of the cost and the standard time to deliver to assist in accommodating consumers who want their products immediately.
This message reduces shopping cart bailouts by introducing the cost at the right time.
Tip: Getting the delivery message right is fully dependent on how simple your pricing model is for shipping, and is why 'Free Shipping' is a conversion enhancer.
Apart from the no-cost element, it is easily communicated site wide. ASOS has the Free Delivery message loud and proud on all product detail pages with a simple pop up communicating timelines for global regions.
The 'buying area'
The buying area is a section of the product detail page containing all information required for a consumer to select the right product for purchase.
The buying area is meant to draw the consumer's eye making it obvious this is the primary action he/she is meant to take on the page and is achieved with subtle shading or colouring of the background area.
This, combined with a strong call to action button, makes this area of the page obvious. An example of the buying area in use can be seen on every product detail page of Zappos.com.
The buying area contains the following content listed in order:
- Product availability (in-stock message).
- Colour options (if required).
- Size guide (if required).
- Size options (if required).
- The call to action button.
- Confidence building message i.e. security.
Product availability
Assuming you display products in stock, a simple statement such as 'in stock and ready to ship' is a confidence builder for the later stage buyer.
Having this statement sitting within the buying area provides the perception the statement is specifically for this product or any variation of the product.
Colour options
Consumers understand the use of both swatches and drop downs listing colours, but be aware of the pros and cons for each.
Swatches can be a challenge in accurately representing the colour of the item and becomes poor merchandising practice. If there are a large number of colour variants, swatches take up a lot of valuable page real estate making the drop down a more suitable option.
There are some very good examples of some retailers incorporating the drop down and the swatches simultaneously.
Tip: When a colour option is selected, have your main product image change to reflect the colour selection. This is de-risking the purchase for the consumer, and takes the reliance off of getting the swatch thumbnails identical to the fabric colour.
Size guide
Have the size guide as a link directly above the size options. As the eye of the consumer fixes on the buying area it begins to work down from top to bottom.
If a consumer is unsure of their size it is best to educate them on the sizing before they are asked to select a size.
Tip one: When displaying size guide content, keep the consumer in the product detail page. If the size guide is another piece of software to assist in building confidence in the size decision, make sure it is simple and usable and communicate the benefits of taking these extra steps.
Don't make sizing a barrier to the sale.
Tip two: If the size guide is content, ensure it is content for that particular garment type. For example, if the garment is woman's jeans, do not have sizing content showing sizing for men's jeans.
Great example of this is on ASOS. The size guide content is specific to the sub category. The Men's Jumpers and Cardigans sub category has a 'Men's Jumpers and Cardigans' size guide. Adding friction at this stage of the buying journey can lose a sale.
Size options
Like colour, there are pros and cons of drop downs vs displaying 'size boxes'. Boxes take up space and will push the call to action down the page.
Many will argue the use of boxes makes it easier to select a size, but consumers understand drop downs. The true advantage with drop downs comes with planning page layouts/templates for product detail pages.
Regardless of the number of sizes, the drop down will always be a fixed shape taking up the same amount of space on the product detail page (make sure you manage the width of your drop down box for longer titled variations).
A strong argument against the display of boxes for size (and colour) relates to the inflexible nature of the templates driven from the ecommerce technology.
Many ecommerce templates have limitations to their ability to display different variations of product detail pages. For example one product may have 10 sizes and another may have two, but the same product template is used meaning the product with only two sizes on offer has a block of white space, making the page look unorthodox.
Zappos and ASOS use drop downs, Amazon uses a combination of both and John Lewis use boxes for both colour and size. If you are focused on the integrity of page layouts and want to control the placement of your call to action, use drop downs.
Add to cart button
Since this is the primary desired action for this page, it's worth sharing a few key characteristics of a best practice add to cart button:
- It is a contrasting colour to your site. If your site is green, regardless of the "green means go" mantra, do not have a green button.
- It is large (size matters).
- It draws the eye of the consumers; making it obvious what action he/she is supposed to take.
- It looks "clickable" i.e. it's not "flat".
Many articles tackle this subject very well, the point here is, there is a science to creating this button.
Tip: Incorporate messages around the add to cart button to build confidence.
Bryan Eisenberg:
Amazon used this strategy for years on its 'add to cart' buttons. Even though they removed it, we have still used it quite successfully for clients recently. Notice how Amazon used the words 'you can always remove it later' on the button and the use of the lock graphic and the additional words 'shopping with us is safe. Guaranteed.'
Section three:
Left hand side of the page below section one.
Ideally, the top of this section can be seen just above the fold to indicate there is more content to view. This section is meant to be rich with content to satisfy those who are in information gathering mode or early stage buying.
They are methodical in nature and work at a very slow pace to ensure they can find every bit of information to assist them in making the right purchase decision and is why this content can be safely below the fold. These consumer types are 'scrollers'.
There are various ways to manage content in this section with the use of tabs being the most common.
Product feature copy
Consists of materials, material breakdown (i.e. 40% cotton), dimensions, weight, cleaning instructions, assembly instructions, technical features (critical for electronics). The more detail the better!
Tip one: Do not have this content bundled up in PDFs. There are obvious SEO reasons, more importantly it needs to be easy to read.
Tip two: Make sure the pixel size of your font does not get smaller as you scroll down lower on the page. The 'scrollers' are not skimming, they read everything. Make it easier on them.
Product reviews
As long as consumers can easily read and follow the comments, this section will do its job. There are many extra functional tools that can be used such as 'was this review helpful?', but in the early days, keep things simple.
Returns policy
This content de-risks the purchase, and is important to have sitting within the product detail page. It does not matter if it is the same content site wide.
The time returns content is relevant, so place it in a relevant position to compliment the buying process.
Delivery detail
Same as returns information in the sense that it's OK if it's the same message throughout the site, it is keeping the consumer on the page. The entire delivery story must be told. All costs for all regions.
Tip: Mention the track and trace service if it is available. It is another method to de-risk the purchase.
Size detail
The detailed content for sizing can be below the fold if there is a link in the "buying area" that pulls consumers down to this area of the page.
Section four:
Right hand side of the page below section two.
Product relationships (cross and up selling).
This section focuses on building relationships with the feature product and is below the buying area. The placement of this content is similar to how the chocolate treats are situated in checkout lanes at the grocery store.
Consumers can and do venture into a buying mode where distractions of other product offers will add friction to their buying process. Only once the buying mode is complete with a product selection is the consumer susceptible to purchasing other items.
The proximity of product relationships to the buying area and its relevancy improves its chances for selection.
This enters the classic debate of taking consumers directly to the shopping cart once the add to cart button is selected vs. leaving the consumer on the product detail page with the hopes another product will be selected for purchase.
Great topic for another day (if you are interested to read more about this topic make a comment below).
Tip: Displaying relevant product relationships can assist in the purchase of the main product. This is merchandising in its truest sense. Bricks and mortar retailers have perfected this tactic for decades.
The consumer may not purchase the extra product, but it assisted the buying decision.
The ASOS 'Complete the look' does a great job of replicating this experience online.
Recently viewed products
When browsing through sites with large product mixes this can be helpful.
The product detail page is where the magic is supposed to happen. When a product detail page does its job two things happen:
- The consumer meets his/her goal (they have their need fulfilled).
- The retailer achieves its goal and acquires a happy customer.
Following some or all of the recommendations here will provide a solid starting point. Your continuous improvement process will take it from there and is why the top performing online retailers have evolved.
Product mixes and target markets influence product page layouts, however, if you don't have a foundation from which to start, evolution is slow and costly. Learn from the experience of others and expedite the evolution of your product detail page.
Our Ecommerce Best Practice Compendium contains more than 170 valuable tips to help online retailers to improve the ecommerce user experience and maximise conversion rates.
Comments (35)
Nice tutorial, you have a great blog
Superb post, Greg!
Very useful and to the point. Effective product pages are fundamental to success. It's really sad to see that there are still many companies (small as well as big) which don't utilise them effectively.
I've recently touched this topic as well; I've looked into power of Product Descriptions and how to write them.
Excellent post!
Excellent article Greg, love the WIIFM lesson, it's often ignored. Are personas still the rage? Were quite the rage a few years ago:-).
At last someone coming forward to talk about layout and how to pin together an ecommerce website. All that has been addressed here is absolutely vital to anyone considering building their next ecommerce website. The only part that has not been addressed, and I would welcome seeing comments upon is how to manage the other pages that end up in the architecure whereby you have say ladies coats and jackets and there are about 30 to a page. So you have the URL of the first page that makes sense and it lists 30 coats and jackets, but after that you have links along the bottom that go from page2,3,4,5,6,7....34
What are marketers views here as to whether you should try and optimise each of these individual landing pages that also have around 30 items on that landing page.
What has been said in this article surrounding a product page, I get and you can really optimise this page to be found and parachute the customer right into the product. But CATEGORY pages and ones that use FILTERS etc. these are I think challenging for the marketer trying then to parachute the customer into the AISLE that could meet their needs.
Now that would make a great article to debate upon, because I have not come across even big brand sites that have gotten the search marketing right in this area.
It's worth keeping content in mind when planning product pages. A lack of data can ruin your best laid plans. To give you one specific example, in a previous life I specified pretty much the exact sections 3+4 as your example above for a well known high street retailer only to find that they didnt have the required data to populate the up and cross sell sections. The result was a huge unsightly gap in most of their product pages. Make sure you vet those pixel perfect page designs and prototypes by plugging in real data before committing to any specific page layout.
Great blog article. I like the wireframe and the detailed analysis of all the section plus giving recommendations on what to do.
Let's hope a lot of online-shop owners or e-commerce sites will follow the advice.
I think also people still underestimate the importance of high quality product images or 360° image or product videos to transport the product experience. We started a fixed-price service for 360° images to help shop owners out here: http://send2scan.com
Would be great to get some more information or an additional blog article only on this. We are also starting a blog on the topic product presentation and 360° images shortly. If you have wishes on topics for this I would be happy to receive them.
Wow, this is comprehensive!
However, I would say that it should be qualified as a desktop site layout. It may make it the mother of all articles, but I'd love to hear your thoughts on how it would work on a responsive site, coming at it from a mobile-first perspective.
Given the trends in traffic, we're all going to have to get better at thinking about mobile first despite us all spending our working days in front of much bigger screens. Otherwise we risk being in a completely different place than the customers.
Really good, perfectly explained and very useful.
Thank you and Congratulations!!
This is wrong wrong wrong /rant over.
Some of this is advise is excellent practice (for everyone), some best practice (for the majority) and some plain incorrect for the majority.
What the title of the post should state is:
"Ecommerce product pages: where to place 30 elements and why IF:
1, You have a large number of SKU's
2. You have super high traffic volumes
3. You have data algortims crunching the large data input from your super high traffic volumes.
4. You are not relying on content as a driver.
5. You have an excellent on-line brand"
I.E. You are already a very large commodity eCommerce store.
For everyone else; trying to copy everything from all the major commodity players that are built on custom technology, have design from 4+ years ago and are optimised for very high traffic volumes is, at best, going to cause inefficient use of space in parts, at worst, be negative for your business.
@Henry, I think there is probably a lot that small businesses can learn from the bigger players. Yes, you may not have the same volume of traffic and products, but customers expectations about ecommerce user interfaces are formed by the bigger volume sites, as that's where they have spent their time.
commerce UI patterns have started to coalesce, which I think Greg has captured very well. I think sites stray from these guidelines at their peril, they risk confusing their customers as the customers have had habits formed on other sites.
While I may have raised a question about mobile/responsive, that was more out of a desire to be forward looking, however Greg's post is an excellent round-up of the current best practices, which not enough sites are actually achieving yet.
I find it hard to believe there are many small companies who wouldn't be delighted if a customer said that their product page was as good as ASOS's
Love it! Can't tell you exactly how many of these touch on CONTENT & COPY. If nothing else, do your SEO research, get the right keywords in place and create great copy! That will get you half way there... Then look at optimizing Titles, images, H1, H2, H3, linking out to articles and guides, etc.... Nice piece!
@Glen Persona development is still really important, however the process to develop have evolved. There is a far greater emphasis now on the insights gained from data making this process far more accurate.
@Brian I completely agree with you. The ability to layout and construct effective main and subcategory pages is a great topic for another article. I am happy to tackle this one.
The ability to create main category (and sub category) pages to maintain a consumer's buying momentum can be a challenge. This involves naming convention (aligning to demand), content, layout, and the proper use of technology to name a few.
I recently wrote another article on building a customer centric navigation, this addresses some of the points:
@Albie Your point is really important. This article talks about the ability to capitalise on the value of 30 plus page elements, of course it is understandable not everything can be utilised.
However, this is the opportunity.
It is my hopes this article will help define the gap between what retailers are currently doing vs where they need to be in order to cover the basics.
Those retailers who do not see the value in content are the ones who will only sell to late stage buyers who buy on price. This customer type is costly to acquire and even more costly to keep. Not a very robust business model.
@Gavin I have very strong views on product detail pages for smartphones and think it is a good topic for another article. But briefly:
The philosophies are the same as above with hierarchy and messages.
The three challenges are:
1. Ordering of content. The ordering of content requires thought and will vary by retailer but all the content is still important.
2. Accessing the content in a usable manner. How intuitive is the page for consumers?
3. Understanding the buying behaviour of consumers when the smartphone is part of the journey. Google talks about behaviour in the new "Multi Screen World".
For example, the information gathering process for earlier stage buyers review content, then stop, and carry on their buying journey at home on their tablet or PC:
@Stewart@Henry Thank you Stewart for taking the time to respond to Henry, I could not have said it any better myself. Another point I would like to make is, I come by this information honestly. Over the last 10 years I have worked closely with hundreds of small to medium retailers and have seen first hand the above recommendations work.
Henry, you are right in the sense that high traffic, high SKU base and data enhance digital conduct, but the above recommendations work for retailers of various shapes and sizes IF their focus is right. This is key.
The evolution of eCommerce plus Social, plus Mobile have many heads spinning resulting in an average level of conduct across a number of disciplines. I wrote this article as a reminder to get back to the basics.
Your comments suggest small retailers cannot follow the above recommendations because they are inexperienced, and don't have enough products or traffic. I am going to disagree with you.
My "rant" is over.
@Greg I don't doubt this information is built from your own experiences. I also don't doubt you know what you are talking about, I just have an issue with the wording of your article.
This article is aimed at the SME online channel right? The enterprise market would not be enterprise unless they had already got their product page sorted.
I do not argue there is a lot to learn from the large enterprises but it has to be understood that they have built their product pages for themselves, their traffic, their merchandise, with their brand equity and ultimately their goals.
Read this: http://baymard.com/blog/just-copy-amazon-fallacy
and this: http://uxmyths.com/post/718217318/myth-if-it-works-for-amazon-it-will-work-for-you
I therefore stick to my point that the wording of your article is dangerous for SME's even if a lot of the content is useful.
@Stewart I would be happy if I could say that my product pages had better conversion than ASOS, not had customers saying they were equally as good... ;)
Many thanks for your response and that you will consider sharing with us your views around the areas I discussed in my earlier reply.
And despite what some others have commented here about this article not giving out the right message to smaller enterprises who have an ecommerce website or maybe are considering deploying their first site to sell products - let us remind ourselves:
Since the thought of becoming a 'shop-keeper' stirred the minds of millions long before the internet shop keeper that previously these small high street shop keepers built their business on best practice principles - learning from the big boys!
But - maybe one thing was different when you walked into the smaller shop back then - the proprietor made a point of really getting to know their customer even more than the big brand guy.
So the customer not only got the 'experience' of what they were accustomed out say at the retail park from MR BIG BRAND in those days, but they also experienced an even greater level of customer care from our smaller high street guy. And I have many of these guys today who have become clients of mine with their ecommerce websites nicely sandwiched in amongst the big brands having learned from all the massive bucks spent by MR BIG BRAND on how to get customers, convert them and keep them.
So, haven't we always learned from our peers in life, and that is why Greg's article sits well and it 'educates' newbies and some who might be wondering right now why they are not achieving conversion.
SIMPLES - as one brand puts it!!
Thanks Brian, I completely agree with you. If my article can help one retailer, then the effort in putting this information together was completely worth it. I am driven to share information and knowledge to assist retailers in "lifting their digital game" and is why I am proud to be apart of the Econsultancy family.
@Greg Great piece - we produced an ebook on best practise for product page design a few months ago, and have had some great feedback, which proves that many SME's are not even getting the basic stuff right. Even making some of these changes can have a material impact on conversions and revenues. Product pages are the most important pages of the entire site, so worth spending time over.
You can see our ebook - How to Create the Ultimate Product Page - here
While it is great to work and put so much energy into a product page on a site for the search engines, many designers and developers forget about the ultimate purpose of the product page. To showcase the product to the user so that they feel comfortable purchasing the product. While some products are easy, others take more kludging of the user. 360 product photography is a great way to help show the viewer the product for all of its positives. We all know that the first impressions of the product are through a visual means. It is not the text content that grabs the users attention.
With interaction with the 360 product view, users get drawn in to the product. This helps to keep them interested and ultimately converting them to a sale.
Additionally, today it is possible to have have 360 views on just about every commerce platform, bandwidth and technology are no longer a hurdle, but instead are an assistive force.
I loved the article and agree on just about everything.
However, how do you handle a B2B ecommerce site where many products for sale have required "accessory" items. You want them to buy the product but you need to "slow" them down so they pick the correct accessories, a "Complete the Look" section that seems out the way really would not work.
@ Steve
B2B definitely requires a different approach, the buying process is far more deliberate and fast paced. This is why some of my very successful B2B strategies for clients don't even have product detail pages. All purchasing is done from the sub category stage with products in a list view.
In your case where the accessory items are important I have done a few different things with great success:
1. Bundling (or kits). If you have required accessories, don't sell the product on its own. Bundle the product with the accessories. Make sure your photography and content does the job in communicating what is included and why. Also provide guidance on how to sell it all together. Retailers will be looking for you to provide the selling tips. You are the specialist.
2. Build greater prominence to the accessories on the page. A 3 column layout could prove useful with design elements to draw the eye to accessories.
3. Content. If you have content such as "retailer selling tips" you could explain why the accessories must be matched to the main product. They may not be purchasing the accessories because they don't know.
4. More content...video. I don't have the option to be pragmatic in my recommendations, but the more you can educate the retailer in the products and the relationship with the accessories, the better. There is as much pressure on B2B businesses to create content as there is for B2C.
5. More content...set the expectation before product detail page. Prior to retailers arriving to the product detail page, set the expectation that some (or all) products cannot be sold without compulsory accessories. Simple messages in strategically placed tiles is all that's necessary with links to content pages (and video) explaining full reasons as to why.
6. Functionality. This is not a fair recommendation because I don't know what technology you are working with, but your eCommerce technology can support your selling process in many ways to prompt retailers to purchase the accessories once they have selected a main product.
For example, on selecting the main product a pop up appears listing all compulsory accessories. They should not be taking to the checkout, this is a symbol of their purchase almost being done. This message just be viewed at either product detail or in an overlay.
7. Email Marketing. Educate the retailers before they purchase. Send the content in advance with how to purchase the main product and accessories when its time to restock.
8. Incentives. Provide savings if the accessories are purchased with the main product.
9. Sales training. The retailer may have a different philosophy on how to sell your products than you do i.e. they sell the accessories separately. The website can be as obvious and blunt, however, if the retailer does not sell your products as they are intended, a retailer management function is required to shift this mindset.
Good luck and I hope some of this helped.
I'm running my own shop on the Internet and those tips were very usefull. Great article. Thanks !
Here it is 2015, and what you said in 2013 still stands. This blog has all the elements of a masterpiece. Well researched and well written. Thank you so much.
Thanks for the kind words. I wrote this article back in 2013 because I was tired of everyone writing how bad product detail pages are and no one had the guts to say how to properly do it.
You will be interested to know I am in the middle of writing a series of books for Econsultancy taking the above concept and breaking down all key pages of an eCommerce website: home page, category pages, product detail page (again), and shopping cart process. I also go a step further and include what the layouts will look like on tablets and smartphones.
If this is something you think people are interested in, let me know. It's great getting feedback on my content projects.
So you put the recommendations / complete the look in section 4? Complete the look is better when its placed nearer the seed product and tabbing Recently viewed / Recommendation and complete the look is not best practice. Even if you have limited space there are better solution such as those M&S / Amazon have.
@Michael I think all so-called best practice is open to interpretation, and testing and results trump theory.
@Michael, thanks for the feedback. Graham is right RE testing takes over, but I still support the placement and treatment of this content. Let me elaborate more on the good points you raise:
Proximity for merchandising. The proximity of this content is comparable to Amazon, sitting below the buy call to action. Marks and Spencer utilise a three column layout giving them the opportunity to lift product recommendation content above the fold. However, this layout can be problematic from the perspective of content hierarchy, ensuring the product page focuses the consumer's eye on the right page elements at the right time. Asos moved from a very similar three column to a two column layout.
I agree merchandising strategy demands the recommendation content to have an element of proximity and is why this tabbed container is located as seen in the wireframe. To lift the merchandising influence of this page element, retailers can move from the traditional row of two products to a larger single product which stacks one on top of the other giving the consumer the option to scroll through more products.
Tabbing this content. When looking at tabbing this content think of this in terms of reducing consumer interaction cost: reducing both physical and mental effort of the consumer. The variation of product detail page layouts grows by the day, making the placement of recommendation content a moving target.
By containing, clearly labeling and displaying this content above the fold on desktop and tablet screens (the landscape view is right on the fold), consumers will quickly see and understand this content with little effort. Anytime a consumer needs to look for this content you are adding effort to their experience.
The tabbed recommendation container also translates effectively to mobile screens.
Hope this helps provide more context.
Good logic but much too 'one size fits all'. It's a little different selling fashion online versus a computer versus a sofa versus a car. Creating the look, product builders/bundlers, cross-sells and up-sells, personalisation, fit guides, reviews, etc all take greater or lesser importance depending on the product type and the brand, as does the use of product imagery, 360's, page real estate, etc. So, I agree with the logic of not taking a consumer off-piste from the well trodden path to check-out, but very much disagree that there is a single template that would serve each category and brand the best. Luxury also very different to high street - think inspiration versus function. Thanks for the post though! P
@Peter, I understand your point of view it is common feedback. Your comments suggest all fashion retailers should have the same product detail page layout, which is somewhat a contradiction to your one-size fits all point.
The above recommendations have come together from principles and methodologies that
have taken years to develop and in fact transcends product type.
This article pulls together best practice online buying psychology and usability elements.
This is the "science". These recommendations are not influenced by the "art". Success
comes in pulling together the "art" and "science". The "art" comes from the retailer's clear understanding of the unique buying needs/behaviours of their customers. The crucial differences in product detail pages across different product types and retailers are not page layouts, its content.
The page layout enables retailers to leverage their content to sell their products. The
content is the true "art": imagery, video, copy, consumer-driven content, product
I have used the same (or very similar) product page layout for fashion retailers, electronic retailers, baby retailers, pet retailers and department store retailers. Each client had big successes (big sales increases). The key difference between each was not the layout; it was
their content and product merchandising strategies.
I can understand many people not feeling comfortable with this concept, but I have seen
this work repeatedly with my clients (large and small). The department store model
supports my point. One retailer with multiple product ranges using the same product page
Don't take my word for it, have a look at John Lewis. Compare their product detail page
layout for their dresses and their large screen TV's. The layouts are identical.
Have a look at Nordstrom's fragrance product pages vs their men's shirts product pages.
The layouts are identical.
Have a look at Marks and Spencer's bed product pages vs their women's jumpers product
pages. The layouts are identical.
Still very useful.. Thanks
Very precisely described about each areas of product detail page. Thanks for such informative article. Very useful :)
We took a virtual store job to structure the content of the pages of each product. This article has helped us a lot. Thank you.
Hi and thanks for the feedback. You should know I have recently written a book on the Product Detail page which takes a more indepth look at all page elements and how they need to be laid out on both desktop and smartphone pages.
Econsultancy is in the process of formatting. It should not be far away:)


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About this CollectionThe mission of this project is to capture digital images and the complete transcription of headstones of our ancestors. As decades pass, it is becoming harder - if not impossible - to read the inscriptions these stones originally contained. By archiving the images and transcriptions, these important records are saved

subset: commoncrawl


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Venom expert joins ECU
By Doug Boyd
ECU News Services
Dr. Sean Bush holds an eastern king snake. Bush, an expert in venomous animal bites and stings, has joined the faculty of the Brody School of Medicine at ECU. Photo by Cliff Hollis
GREENVILLE, N.C. (July 30, 2013) — Folks who reach under the wrong pile of wood and feel the pain of a copperhead bite can relax just a little on their way to the emergency department.
That's because internationally known snake expert Dr. Sean Bush, featured on the television show "Venom ER," has joined the faculty of the Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University.
Bush has joined ECU as a physician and professor of emergency medicine. He started work July 1 and comes to ECU from Loma Linda University in California, where he was a professor and director of the envenomation medicine fellowship. He sees patients in the emergency department at Vidant Medical Center.
"I came to ECU in search of copperheads and greener pastures," Bush said. "Greenville has all the elements my family and I were looking for in a community. The Brody School of Medicine feels like a place where I can thrive as a professor of emergency medicine. I have already seen snakebite patients here, and if anyone is bitten in eastern North Carolina, I hope to contribute to their care."
Bush has had a lifelong interest in reptiles and venomous creatures. He has written more than 50 publications on the treatment of bites and stings and has lectured on the local, national and international level. He has been featured in dozens of television documentary productions on several cable networks including Animal Planet, the Discovery Channel, National Geographic Television and PBS. Among other recognitions, he was an expert advisor on snakebite medicine to the White House Medical Unit from 2001-2009.
At ECU, Bush plans to study copperhead snakes and their venom as well as other poisonous stinging and biting creatures, from fire ants to wasps to black widow spiders.
"Anything that bites, stings or has venom, I'm interested in that," he said.
Copperheads are the most common of six species of venomous snakes in North Carolina. In 2009, North Carolina led the nation in copperhead bites with 228. Their bites are typically not fatal for humans, though they can kill small animals and do require immediate medical attention.
Rattlesnakes, cottonmouths and coral snakes are a more serious danger. "That's a 9-1-1 helicopter emergency," Bush said of a rattlesnake bite.
However, Bush said, snakes aren't out to get people.
"They're not trying to eat a person," he said. "A snake is trying to get away. A snake is one inch, and you're probably 70 inches. If you saw something 70 times taller than you, you'd want to get away, too."
Nevertheless, it's not uncommon for people to say they hate snakes and try to kill any snake they see.
"That, to me, it's absurd. It's uninformed. It's a little small-minded," Bush said. "Snakes deserve to live, too. I personally love snakes."
Snakes can also be beneficial. They eat rats and mice, and some eat more dangerous rivals.
"A king snake in your yard means a rattlesnake will go out of your yard," Bush said of the non-poisonous constricting snake that's immune to the venom of the pit viper it sometimes dines on.
Bush's arrival at ECU is noteworthy, school officials said.
"We are excited and proud to have recruited Dr. Sean Bush to join us at ECU Emergency Medicine," said Dr. Theodore Delbridge. "He is of the highest caliber and brings with him a track record of significant academic and clinical accomplishments that will contribute to our programs in outstanding ways. We look forward to Dr. Bush's contributions to our ongoing research regarding various envenomations and his expertise when it comes to treating the multitude of bites and stings we regularly see in the emergency department."
Bush is not alone on the ECU faculty in studying the treatment of people hurt by wildlife. Dr. William Meggs, an emergency physician and toxicologist, has published research on the treatment of coral snake bites. Dr. Eric Toschlog, a surgeon, is a member of the Wilderness Medical Society and has written and lectured on the subject of wildlife attacks.
Bush has bachelor's and medical degrees from Texas A&M University and completed residency training in emergency medicine at Loma Linda University Medical Center. He has 30 publications in peer-reviewed journals in addition to other academic writings.
Bush is board-certified in emergency medicine and is a fellow of the American College of Emergency Physicians.
Though Bush has never been bitten by a poisonous snake, his son was bitten by a rattlesnake when he was 2 years old. He fully recovered.
If anyone wants to avoid seeing him in the emergency department, Bush has some simple advice.
"The best thing to do is leave wildlife alone," he said. "Take pictures of it."
Watch Dr. Sean Bush show an eastern king snake to staff members at Vidant Medical Center.
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CNBC Ranks Tennessee 2nd in "America's Top States for Transportation and Infrastructure"
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – For the fourth year in a row, Tennessee's transportation system ranks as one of the best in the nation, according to CNBC's 2013 study "America's Top States for Business." According to the report, Tennessee ranks second best in America in the category of "Transportation and Infrastructure," up from fourth place in 2012. Tennessee is also the only state topping the list that has no transportation debt.
Many states across the nation carry transportation debt, and must allocate a large portion of their funds to interest payments.
"We are striving to be the best DOT in the nation," said Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) Commissioner John Schroer. "This ranking is an affirmation of the efforts TDOT has made in the last two and half years to be innovative, efficient, and responsible. Prioritizing and maximizing our investments will continue to provide economic benefits to communities across the state."
"We know that access to high-quality infrastructure is a key component to getting products to market and people on the move," said Kent Starwalt, Executive Vice President of the Tennessee Road Builders Association. "This acknowledgement is a true testament that the department and the industry are working together to foster economic opportunity in Tennessee by providing a superior transportation network."
The CNBC report scored all 50 states on 51 measures of competitiveness developed with input from business groups. States received points based on their rankings in each metric. Those metrics were then separated into ten broad categories, including the vitality of each state's transportation system. Tennessee also ranked well in the categories of workforce and cost of living. This is the seventh year the news network has performed the study.


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Occupy Wall Street group puts 'zombie' debt to rest
Shirley and Norbert Logsdon thought her medical debt was already paid -- then they got a letter from the Rolling Jubilee fund saying the New-York based non-profit had covered the bill. The Courier-Journal, Louisville, Ky.
Non-profit group buys old debt in credit markets like the collection agencies do.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — An offshoot of the Occupy Wall Street movement has bought more than $1 million in old medical bills in this area and freed the debtors from the obligation of paying it off.
The New York-based nonprofit Rolling Jubilee fund says it is in the process of buying almost $12 million in outstanding old bills nationwide for pennies on the dollar in an effort to liberate debtors who often cannot afford to pay. And it intends to buy more as it gets more money from donors.
STORY: Bill collectors get tough, complaints surge
"It is the Rolling Jubilee's position that it is making a tax-free gift to the people whose debt it is abolishing," the organization says on its website. This debt is unpaid bills that creditors sell to collection agencies at a discount and collection agencies sell among themselves, what Rolling Jubilee calls a "shadowy speculative market of debt buyers who then turn around and try to collect the full amount from debtors."
Sometimes those debts have been paid off, were settled in bankruptcy court or had an expiration on their statute of limitations. But debt collectors often try to revive a claim, cajoling a debtor to make even a small payment so the entire debt can be resurrected legally.
Critics call this "zombie" debt because obligations that people thought were long dead come back to haunt them — and can get new life if a debtor gets intimidated and makes the wrong moves.
"We're going into this market not to make a profit but to help each other out and highlight how the predatory debt system affects our families and communities," the Rolling Jubilee Fund says. "Think of it as a bailout of the 99% by the 99%."
Shirley Logsdon, 80, is one of 1,064 people in the Louisville area who has benefited.
She thought Medicare had paid her delinquent $983 bill for back pain care last year. That's what her doctor told her after a 2011 dispute during which the bill had gone to a collection agency, she said.
"I am very happy that somebody paid it," said Logsdon, the first debtor in this area to publicly identify herself. "In fact, I had quit worrying about it when we didn't get any more notices that we owed it."
Rolling Jubilee spokesman Thomas Gokey said all of the half dozen or so Louisville-area debtors who contacted the fund after being notified last month that their debt was forgiven said they were unaware their medical bills still were owed.
Each got a letter from Strike Debt, the sponsor of Rolling Jubilee, like the one Logsdon received, telling her she no longer owed the $983.
"It is gone, a no-strings-attached gift," the letter said.
Logsdon said she was relieved but also irritated because she thought insurance had already paid — a reaction that Gokey said was typical of those who didn't know their debt still was sloshing around in the financial system.
The $1.12 million in Louisville-area debt bought by the Rolling Jubilee Fund came from six physicians here, said Fred Melroy, the billing and finance director for the medical practice management firm CureMD in New York City. In January, the Rolling Jubilee fund purchased the entire bundle for $10,000.
Melroy said the doctors, who work for Louisville Inpatient Physician Services, want anyone who received a letter from Strike Debt to know that they indeed are free from those debts.
"I would believe that any patient with disputed debt would welcome a letter saying for whatever reason we are canceling your debt," he said.
Medicare and Aetna, Logsdon's former insurance company, had disputed who should pay her bill, But Melroy said an investigation Tuesday, prompted by a Courier-Journal query, concluded that Medicare should have paid it.
The doctors' previous billing agency is to blame for not sorting that out sooner, he said.
Melroy said his company became responsible for collecting the doctors' receivables in 2011. The physicians were unsure which of the delinquent medical debts their previous billing agency managed already had been paid. Instead, they decided to sell the debt for an average 1 cent on the dollar to the Rolling Jubilee Fund.
"The last thing they would want would be to harass any patient whose debt was not validated or could not pay for economic reasons," Melroy said in an email.
"They kept sending me bills saying the insurance company refused it and Medicare refused it, and then finally, they turned it over to a collection agency," said Logsdon's 83-year-old husband, Norbert.
Shirley Logsdon's medical records, which she provided, show she had an overnight hospital stay and diagnostic tests, including an X-ray and CAT scan.
Logsdon's daughter, Mary Ann Seger, said the numerous phone calls with her mother, the doctors' office and the collection agency in 2012 were "a nightmare."
Then the collection agency stopped calling.
"We assumed everything was good," Seger said.
She had mixed feelings about the notice from Rolling Jubilee that the debt had been paid off.
"It keeps coming back," Seger said. "You can't kill it. If it had been billed properly and handled properly, the debt wouldn't even have been there."
Since the recession, the debt collection industry has ballooned, according to the Federal Trade Commission. But the way the delinquent debts are sold, as a bundle of thousands of different debts, can lead to errors.
Debt less than 3 years old was verified to be accurate just 58% of the time, said an FTC report called The Structure & Practices of the Debt Buying Industry.
"Confusion is the grease that keeps the wheels of the medical collections industry turning," Gokey said.
Meanwhile, Logsdon said she was "tired of fooling with this."
"When you step in it, it takes a long time to get it off your shoe," she said. "It just lingers and lingers and lingers."
You've probably had to deal with one or two phone calls from a debt collector, calling about a debt that you might not even remember, or even owe. KSDK-TV, St. Louis


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International Women's DayMar 8, 2013
This year, International Women's Day focuses on achieving momentum in the fight for gender equality, and the specific theme is "A promise is a promise: Time for action to end violence against women."
"This year on International Women's Day, we convert our outrage into action. We declare that we will prosecute crimes against women – and never allow women to be subjected to punishments for the abuses they have suffered. We renew our pledge to combat this global health menace wherever it may lurk – in homes and businesses, in war zones and placid countries, and in the minds of people who allow violence to continue." - UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon


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Beyond Tolerance
May 6, 2010
Ambassador John L. Loeb, Jr. gave the 41st Annual Herbert H. Lehman Memorial Lecture in March 2010. He spoke about the importance of religious tolerance.
19 Minutes 33 Seconds
This podcast is part of the "Lehman on iTunes U":
"Inspiring Talks" features faculty, guest speakers, and experts discussing their own stories of adversity and success, as well as hopeful new developments, in a variety of fields.
This is Nathaniel Gasque, a student at Lehman College.
Ambassador John L. Loeb, Jr. gave the 41st Annual Herbert H. Lehman Memorial Lecture in March 2010. He spoke about the importance of religious tolerance.
Ambassador Loeb was the U.S. representative to Denmark from 1981 to 1983 and is the grand-nephew of Governor Lehman. He is the first descendant of Governor Lehman to deliver this lecture.
In addition to founding the George Washington Institute for Religious Freedom, Ambassador Loeb is chairman of the Winston Churchill Foundation of the United States. He also is chairman of John L. Loeb, Jr. Associates, Inc., Investment Counselors.
As a child, I didn't realize how important he was. Uncle Herbert, however, towered in my mind because Shirley Temple visited his home in 1939 where I met her. One of my favorite Lehman stories comes from a Lehman cousin, June Bingham, by the way, whose husband, Jonathan Bingham, for years, was a congressman from the Bronx. And as a little girl, my cousin June was a frequent visitor at the home of Herbert's brother, Irving Lehman, who was then-- while his brother was governor, he was Chief Justice of the Court of Appeals.
A frequent visitor also was Albert Einstein. And June was always cautioned to be very, very, very quiet on the occasions when the famed scientist was visiting there because, she was told, "Mr. Einstein is thinking." (LAUGHTER) That story is in Lots of Lehmans. It is anecdotal, not serious, great fun for anyone interested in Lehman stories.
Now I've been asked to tell you a little of the background of the three original Lehman brothers, Mayer, my great-grandfather, and his brothers, Henry and Emanuel. These three founded Lehman Brothers in the mid-1800s. They came from a modest, middle-class German family who lived in the little village called Rimpar, now a bedroom community of Wurzburg in Germany. Now Rimpar and Wurzburg are in Bavaria, one of the larger German states. But when they were born, it was a separate country ruled by a king. And his kingdom was very, very Catholic. In fact, no Protestants were allowed to live in Wurzburg or Rimpar. Jews, however, were allowed to live in Rimpar, but only with an extraordinary number of legal restrictions.
No more than one person born into a Jewish family was granted a license to marry, live, and work in Rimpar. My great-great grandfather, Abraham Lehman, had nine children. Only his eldest son received a license to work and live in Rimpar. Those were the days when the eldest son got everything. Things have unfortunately changed. I'm the eldest son, so-- (LAUGHTER)
All of Abraham Lehman's eight other children, including five girls, had to leave Rimpar and live and work in other places. The girls had to find husbands in other villages. No easy challenge, since the men in other villages often had to leave their homes because of this incredibly, very strict quota system.
Henry, the second eldest Lehman son, headed for America in 1844 to begin life as a peddler at the age of 21. He ended up in Mobile, Alabama, probably because a distant cousin lived there. The cousin's business was selling peddler's packs. Henry had no doubt earned a little money working for his father, a cattle broker in Rimpar. He must have earned at least enough to pay his passage to America and buy his peddler's pack.
From Mobile, Henry started his peddling in various places around Alabama. Then he heard about Montgomery. Montgomery, the largest city in the state, was in the midst of a fast-growing boom. The boom was cotton. Cotton, as they said, was king. Henry arrived in Montgomery in 1845 and soon opened a little dry goods store, which he called simply "H. Lehman and Company." Two years later, his next younger brother, Emanuel, arrived, and the store name changed from "H. Lehman" to "H. Lehman and Bro." for "brother." When my great-grandfather arrived in 1850, the name became "Lehman Brothers."
Often the cotton farmers couldn't pay cash for the goods they bought, so the Lehman brothers started to accept cotton as payment. Now, by 1900, only about 55 years later, the little dry goods store, "Lehman Brothers," had become one of the biggest cotton dealers and brokers in the world. Most people do not know that the Lehman fortune was not made in finance, but was made in cotton.
In the early 1900s, their friends, the Goldmans and the Sachses, who had also come from Bavaria, were entering a new business called "investment banking," but they had very little money. The Lehmans by then were very rich. So the Lehmans backed the Goldmans and the Sachses in this new business. Around the time of the First World War, the Lehmans themselves, having seen what a great business it was, started into investment banking. Over the next 70 years, Lehman Brothers gradually reduced their interest in cotton and other commodities and built one of the greatest investment banking firms in the world.
Now the recent media, print, TV, radio, blogs, has gotten the Lehman Brothers story all wrong. In 1984, for the Lehman Brothers company I have been talking about, and I'll call them "MY" Lehman Brothers, merged with the American Express Company. That was the end of "MY" Lehman Brothers, and at that time, it was a profitable and successful firm. Ten years later, in 1994, the American Express Company created a bond-trading business, headed by Richard Fuld. This bond-trading business was put into a brand new company. The shares of this newly formed bond-trading company were then distributed to the shareholders of the American Express Company.
As the American Express Company at that time controlled the name "Lehman Brothers," they let this new bond-trading business use the name "Lehman Brothers." Fourteen years later, in 2008, this new company, not "MY" Lehman Brothers, went bankrupt. In short, the Lehman Brothers you've been reading about in the news for the last two years has nothing to do, I repeat, nothing to do with "MY" Lehman Brothers, except for the new company's use of my family's name.
The college, as you know, is named for my great-grandfather's, Mayer's, youngest son, Herbert. Of all that my great-uncle achieved, success at Lehman Brothers, service in New York both as a governor and a U.S. Senator, as you've heard, and later as the first director of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration, which actually fed refugees from our allies all over Europe. Many people's lives were saved. But what I am most proud of occurred when he served in the Senate, by the way, two terms. It was his early, lonely, courageous opposition to Senator Joseph McCarthy and all the intolerance of McCarthyism in the 1950s. It was one of our country's, for those of you who can remember, least admirable and most intolerant periods of recent history.
Now I have another story for you. It takes place in the fall of 1945 toward the end of World War II. The story is about a boy who was sent to boarding school in 1939 when he was only nine. He is now fourteen. The boarding school is large, and has an all- American, white-male student body whose families are well-to-do and well-educated. There are few minorities in this school, only five foreigners, refugees from Europe at the time, and two American Jews, one of whom was this boy.
Saturday night is movie night, which the whole student body attends. The first newsreel shows pictures of the German concentration camps that appear on the screen. Horrible, disturbing images of the dead and the emaciated near-dead men, women, and children in degrading striped uniforms. The pictures take that boy's breath away.
What happens next completely knocks the wind out of him. The entire student body cheers and hoots. And afterwards a group of the boys approach him and say, "Well, we don't like Hitler, but at least he's killed the Jews."
That boy was me. I was stunned. I had always thought we were all Americans and religion didn't matter as long as you were a good American. After all, my Grandmother Adeline Moses had colonial ancestors going all the way back to the Revolutionary War, in fact back to 1697.
That terrible night when my school showed the Holocaust newsreel has been the inspiration that fired my lifelong motive to find the basis for such hatred of Jews, to find peace in my own heart, and to teach young people about living with others with more than tolerance. I call it, "beyond tolerance."
I'd like to stop here for a moment and talk about the words "tolerance" and "toleration." We usually think of tolerance as something positive. However, some people see tolerance as a negative. Thomas Paine, for example, who wrote Common Sense and The Rights of Man around the time of the Revolution, said, "Toleration is not the opposite of intoleration, but the counterfeit of it. The one assumes to itself the right of withholding liberty of conscience, the other, of granting it." Some forward-thinking Americans at the same Revolutionary time along with Thomas Paine also believed that the word "tolerance" carried the taint of condescension, as if it was a benefit bestowed by the powerful on the barely worthy.
Not so long ago, as part of my research into what our founding fathers thought about God and religion, I came upon an extraordinary letter that President George Washington wrote to the Hebrew Congregation of Newport, in Rhode Island, in 1790 on the subject of tolerance. George Washington is not usually thought of as a political philosopher, but his words in this letter express the moral understanding that the vast majority of Americans today hold to be our shared religious rights.
This letter had a powerful impact on my thinking and my life. In this memorable letter, Washington states, "It is now no more that toleration is spoken of as if it was by the indulgence of one class of people that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights."
By moving beyond the idea of religious toleration to defining religious observance as an "inherent natural right," Washington distilled the essence of American religious freedom itself, the right of everyone to worship according to his or her conscience.
Now, there is quite a story behind this remarkable letter, and as you can tell, I like to tell stories. It was written one year before the Bill of Rights became law.
In 1790, President Washington paid a good-will visit to Rhode Island, actually to thank Rhode Island who had been very slow to ratify the Constitution, and they finally ratified it. He sailed from New York City, then the American capital, in a little packet boat to Newport, and spent the night there on August 17, 1790. The next morning, various civic groups jockeyed for the honor of giving the president letters of welcome. Among them was the leader of Newport's little, very little, Hebrew congregation, a man called Moses Seixas. His letter was among those presented to the president.
Moses Seixas's letter poured out his gratitude to George Washington for his personal accomplishments and for the establishment of a new government. His eloquent letter expressed the hope that this new country would accord all of its citizens, respect and tolerance, whatever their background and religious beliefs. The Seixas letter moved the president, who responded to that Seixas letter four days later on August 21, 1790.
When you hear the words of George Washington's letter read aloud, you realize that it is a clarion call, which is echoed down the centuries. Let me quote a few more phrases from that letter:
"The citizens of the United States of America have a right to applaud themselves for having given to mankind examples of an enlarged and liberal policy, a policy worthy of imitation. All possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship. It is now no more that toleration is spoken of as if it were the indulgence of one class of people that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights, for, happily, the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens in giving it on all occasions their effectual support."
George Washington's promise was not just tolerance, but full liberty of conscience no matter what one's religious beliefs might be. Thus the president was paving the way for the First Amendment, which was adopted by the thirteen states a little more than a year after his magnificent statement to the Hebrew congregation. It seems appropriate to quote that inspired addition to our Constitution right now:
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble and petition the government for a redress of grievances."
To me, our first president's letter is as important as any document in the history of the United States. Though it contains only 300 words, its key phrases epitomize succinctly and with incredible eloquence the concepts of America's freedoms. I credit this letter as my inspiration for founding the George Washington Institute for Religious Freedom. The mission of the Institute is to focus the attention of this country's teachers on educating America's high school students to understand and appreciate our American freedoms, especially the critical importance of religious freedom and the separation of church and state, the very bedrock of our democracy.
The first project of the George Washington Institute was completed last summer, the building of a Visitors Center on the campus of the Touro Synagogue in Newport, to whose colonial congregation George Washington had written the letter I just quoted.
Little did I know that awful night in 1945 that a devastatingly anti-Semitic experience would set my feet on a life journey leading to the founding of this George Washington Institute for Religious Freedom, and promoting the ideas of Roger Williams, and the historic George Washington Letter to the Hebrew congregation, and the building of the Visitors Center.
Tolerance is not built into our DNA. It must be acquired. We have to educate, or re-educate every new generation. The key to fulfilling the mission of the George Washington Institute is to excite and inspire teachers and through them to excite and inspire students.
Perhaps many of you saw the extraordinary cover picture of the New York Times magazine just last February 14th. The entire front page of the magazine was a replica of the famous painting of General George Washington crossing the Delaware on Christmas Eve, 1776. Superimposed on this picture was an image of Jesus Christ sitting right next to the general. The headline on the magazine cover was in the form of a question: "How Christian Were the Founders?" With the subhead which reads, "History Wars: Inside America's Textbook Battles."
The headline for the article itself reads, "Conservative activists on the Texas Board of Education say the authors of the Constitution intended the United States to be a Christian Nation. And they want America's history textbooks to say so, too." My response to the article that appeared in the New York Times on February 28 is a letter to the editor. I simply quoted the George Washington letter.
In conclusion, I can think of no better way to summarize the stories I've brought you today than to quote the words that my Uncle Herbert Lehman often said to me and others, "I must respect the opinion of others, even if I disagree with them." Thank you.
Visit us at www.lehman.edu. This is a production of the Lehman College Media Relations Office.


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Pickin', Grinnin'
to be Friday
Friday, April 17th there will be Pickin' and Grinnin' going on at the O's So Sweet, 40 St. Main St., Williston. Barbecued ribs and chicken serving will start at 6 p.m. and music starts at 6:30 p.m. Bring a lawn chair for outside.
For information call 528-6100.
Natural Florida
program at Library
Williston area resident Brack Barker will present a program on natural Florida for the Friends of the Williston Public Library on Thursday, April 16, 7 p.m. in the library.
If you currently subscribe or have subscribed in the past to the Williston Pioneer Sun News, then simply find your account number on your mailing label and enter it below.
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Juanita Bingham
Juanita Bingham of Mabelvale passed away Friday, Sept. 21.
She was born to the late Lonnie and Ethel Brazil. She was a member of Pleasant Hill Baptist Church in Sardis. Her greatest joy was spending time with her family and children, whom she loved dearly. She was known for always putting others before herself.
She is survived by her husband, F.W. "Slim" Bingham of Little Rock; a daughter, Debra Wyles, of Little Rock; two sons, Glen Bingham and wife Shelly of Texarkana and John Bingham of Mabelvale; six grandchildren, Paula, Billy, Colton, Blake, Avenly, and James; two great-grandchildren, Lauren and Brayden; one brother, Lonnie Brazil Jr.; and three sisters, Lou Mercer, Nellie Burnett, and Jean McCool.
She was preceded in death by her son, Phillip Bingham; two sons-in-law, Joe Lyons and Glen Wyles; four brothers; and five sisters.
Funeral service was held Tuesday, Sept. 25, at Pleasant Hill Baptist Church in Bauxite. Burial will be in Salem Cemetery.
Online guestbook: "http://www.nlrfh.com" www.nlrfh.com.


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Papa Samba Diouf was born in Dakar in 1956. He spent his younger days both in Senegal's capital and in Diakhao, his father's village. He attended secondary school in Thiès.
"At school, I was already very much interested in issues related to nature," he recalls. His father was a teacher, and Papa Samba was exposed very early to books and other documents on nature.
"But my decision to study, and work on something related to nature came after I was shown an impressive documentary about the natural world," he further recalls. After that he did everything that would allow him to develop his passion for nature.
Further education and work
He earned a bachelor in Natural Sciences and Environmental Sciences from Dakar University and later, two PhDs in Environmental Sciences and Marine Biology respectively from Dakar University and the university of Montpellier, France.
He also holds an International Master in Administration and Business, a Master in diplomacy and strategic studies and a certificate in leadership for conservation. Before taking up the position of WWF's West Africa Marine Programme Coordinator, he respectively worked as a researcher at the Oceanographic Research Centre of Dakar (CRODT). a coordinator of IUCN West African Network (Coastal Planning network) and a lecturer at the university of Dakar.
At CRODT he coordinated research on coastal ecosystems. In 2000, he was hired by the WWF West African Regional Programme Office, based in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire, to open an office in Senegal, and launch a marine programme in West Africa.Current work
Supported by funds from WWF Netherlands, Papa Samba Diouf identified marine protected areas, fishing agreements, sustainable artisanal fishing, and endangered marine species, especially marine turtles, as the four priorities for his programme.
On the ground, he put a lot of effort into organizing meetings and workshops on these issues, where all stakeholders could participate and promote their views. This gave both Papa Samba Diouf and WWF high visibility and credit, and resulted in better understanding and information exchange between the key actors. He was presented in 2003 with WWF Africa & Madagascar Programme's Award for Excellence and with the Award of the best teamwork of WWF International Global Marine Programme.
This was a crucial step to achieve concrete results and decisions. Nowadays, WWF has a strong presence in the West African Marine Ecoregion and is perceived by all as a partner to be worked with.
"Today, I really do what I always dreamt I would do," adds Papa Samba Diouf. He particularly appreciates the fact that preserving the environment contributes to raising the quality of life of thousands of people.
"Being able to propose on the ground solutions or alternatives that eventually will raise people's standard of living is particularly satisfying," he says.
Challenges ahead
As for the main challenge ahead, he points out the need to demonstrate that economic development can go along with conservation of the marine and coastal ecosystems in West Africa.
"To do the kind of job I'm currently doing, you need to be willing to listen to what others say, to be open to new ideas, and to constantly train yourself." he says.


text: Seasons Greetings from A&R. While we stoke the fires on the yule log, everyone at Asphalt & Rubber would like to wish our readers a Happy Holiday. We'll be taking the weekend off as we gear up for the new year, but should be back in the swing of things on Monday. Whatever your denomination, we hope it's spent with good friends and family, and that the two-wheeled vehicle in your garage gets some merriment bling as well.


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Featured News - Current News - Archived News - News Categories
Temporary overnight lane closures are scheduled on the Niagara Thruway (I-190) for the northbound South Grand Island Bridge beginning Wednesday, Oct. 24, and continuing through Friday, Dec. 14, the New York State Thruway Authority this week.
The work is scheduled overnight only, for installation of a new electrical system. It is part of a two-year, $14 million rehabilitation project that also includes deck joint repairs and a new driving surface for the southbound South Grand Island Bridge. Bridge deck work is scheduled to begin in spring 2013.
The Thruway Authority appreciates motorists' patience during this important improvement project.
To receive TRANSalerts, emails that provide real-time information on Thruway traffic conditions, visit http://www.thruway.ny.gov/tas/index.shtml. To see a map of webcam views of the Thruway, visit www.thruway.ny.gov/travelers/map/index.html?layer=cameras.


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Hoskins' defense expert challenges measure used to gauge horse health
An equine science expert who testified on behalf of Beth Lynne Hoskins in her animal cruelty trial said under cross-examination Thursday that a scoring system for a horse's body condition should not be the sole factor in determining malnourishment and seizing horses.
Under hours of cross-examination, William E. Day repeatedly said he did not feel the horses taken from Hoskins' Aurora farm in March 2010 appeared as if they had suffered or were in pain, based on photographs and records he reviewed.
Despite challenges from the prosecution about some of the horses' hoof conditions and several observations of manure encrusted on their bodies, Day held firm in stating that he did not feel the horses suffered.
However, the assistant professor of equine science at Morrisville State College near Syracuse acknowledged that waste management at Hoskins' farm was "not up to industry standards."
"It was a management issue," Day said of the waste buildup in stalls. "I don't think it was normal, or up to industry standard."
In the free-roam barn, manure depth ranged from 12 inches to 26 inches, prosecutor Michael Drmacich said.
Debate about how the body condition scoring system – which was applied to the horses seized by the SPCA three years ago – should be used to assess a horse's health dominated much of the trial testimony this week.
The scoring system, called the Henneke system, is a numerical scale used to evaluate the amount of fat on a horse's body through a visual appraisal.
Day insisted that there are many reasons that horses might have a low score in the system that would not necessarily indicate neglect or malnourishment, such as age.
"With an aged horse unable to maintain a body condition score of 2, then you should decide to either put that horse down or reassess your management and try to get that weight back up," he said.
He also stressed that there is variation as to what merits giving a horse with a 2 or a 3, or even a 4 rating.
"What some evaluators might call a 3, I might call a 2," he said. "Individual evaluators must use their own experience in evaluating horses to avoid bias. There can be drifts in judgment away from their original training as to what constitutes precise body condition scoring. We're seeing more drift and inconsistency."
Hoskins faces misdemeanor animal cruelty charges in the nonjury trial in Aurora Town Court. Authorities including the SPCA raided her farm March 18, 2010 and seized 73 Morgan horses.
The SPCA continues caring for 30 of Hoskins' horses at four different locations, while Hoskins has 39 horses at her Emery Road farm.
Day said the agency seemed motivated to "observe everything that was deficient, and based on everything I've seen, it doesn't seem likely that these horses suffered."
The trial is not expected to resume until the week of April 29, when another defense witness is expected to testify.
email: email@example.com


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